Here are the details for the 2015 Lake Effect Big Event! Sorry we are a little behind on getting this out, but for those of you on our physical mailing address, the mailing should be to you anytime now if not already! Then event is slated for Thursday February 26th, at the Trillium Event Center in Spring Lake, MI! You will also find downloadable files at the bottom too!

Please see the attached flyer for a great event coming up next Saturday August 23rd at the Muskegon State Game Area. In addition to all of the great items listed on the flyer, there will be the opportunity for youths to participate in a live fire event that day as well!

Please feel free to forward to anyone you know who may be interested! This is a great pre-season event for waterfowlers to get together and chat waterfowl and hunting before the fall hunting season begins!

This is a 100% FREE Event with a free lunch provided as well!

You don’t have a Youth to bring? Feel free to stop on by and visit with the members of the Lake Effect Chapter of the Michigan Duck Hunters Association, as well as local DNR Staff.

Well folks, it is that time of year again, for the 5th Annual Lake Effect Chapter of the Michigan Duck Hunters Association Traveling Decoy! So you are asking yourself, “What is the traveling decoy”? The traveling decoy started for the Lake Effect group in the fall of 2009 as a way to have fun and show hunters from around the State enjoying the sport of waterfowling, both in our State and while on trips out of State. It was such a huge hit, that we decided to do it again, and again, and now for the 5th year AGAIN!
Every season, hunters from around Michigan and some from even out of State sign up to be included on the traveling decoy’s hunt calendar and we try and get the decoy into as many hands as possible throughout the season. Hunter’s take photographs, fill out a journal/logbook, and then send it onto the next person to have fun. To date, the first four traveling decoys have logged somewhere in the vicinity of 35,000 miles of travel combined, with roughly 800 birds harvested over them!! With this year’s decoy, we easily will surpass the 40,000 mile mark for the decoy’s travels and hopefully will surpass the 1,000 bird mark as well for harvest numbers! The decoy will make its rounds all season long and will return to West Michigan around February 1st, so that photographs can be compiled and made into a hard cover book, which then in turn will be auctioned off with the traveling decoy on Thursday February 27th, 2014 at the Lake Effect Chapter of MDHA Annual Event! In year’s past we have had a few Chapter members who have taken the traveling decoy on non-hunting trips, but it has been far and few between. Have a favorite fall fishing outing? A trip to bow camp? Small Game Hunting? It doesn’t have to necessarily be a waterfowl outing, be creative with it, and HAVE FUN!

Well, enough rambling, this year’s traveling decoy is Louie the Long-tail, carved by Grand Haven native and longtime Chapter supporter Marty Yonker. We are very excited to get this rolling and the images included are very self-explanatory as to how to sign up! We used to just limit this to Michigan Sportsman forum members and our Chapter members, but we are going to try a new format this year. Please see the RULES document that gives a full explanation on the process!

Let’s make this the best season yet for the 5th Annual Traveling Decoy, Louie the Longtail!

Last year wasn’t up to the full Lake Effect potential for where we held it and we decided to hold it at a new venue. This year we will be featuring not only ALL YOU CAN EAT Shrimp, but we will also be featuring ALL YOU CAN EAT Perch as well! We have attended other organization’s events at the Holiday Inn and the food came out lightning fast and was of VERY high quality! We are really looking forward to the new venue change.

We will be featuring some various raffles and other activities all throughout the evening and it should be something fun to get everyone together for a little PRE duck season socializing and to meet some fellow outdoors men and women in the West Michigan Area!

RSVP to:
susiehughes@comcast.net
OR
231-343-4092 by SEPTEMBER 16th

Also, while we are sending out this email, we are sad to inform everyone that this year we will not be holding our Youth Day. Everyone in our 100% volunteer group are busy with one thing or the other and this year we ran into a few bumps along the way with planning that has resulted in us deciding that instead of putting on a sub-par event for our attendees, that we would re-group and hold a bigger and better event in 2014. We started the youth day in 2008 at the Muskegon State Park (Snug Harbor) and held it there in 09, 10 and 11. 2012 brought a brand new venue, the DNR office of the Muskegon State Game Area and with sports, vacations, new little ones, work logistical/scheduling conflicts, and a few other factors, we have decided to make the call to regroup and take a break from the 2013 event to make the 2014 event THE BEST ONE YET! Stay Tuned to our website, Facebook, and Email for updates on other future and upcoming events throughout this fall, winter and next spring!

Muskegon County Pheasants Forever will be having their annual youth rendezvous. Sporting clays, .22 and air rifle ranges, sporting dogs, mountain man camp, turkey targets, seminars, and MUCH more!

If you would like to volunteer at our Lake Effect Chapter of MDHA booth, please contact us at lakeeffectmdha@gmail.com for more info! Visit http://www.lakeeffectmdha.org for all news and updates! The next monthly meeting for the Lake Effect Chapter of the Michigan Duck Hunters will be Wednesday June 5th at 7pm at the usual location of the Norton Shores Sam’s Joint!